The smell of peroxide and the drone of hairdryers fill the air at Gao Yuan's salon as stylists cut, dye and tease customers' hair.

Since contestants for the Miss World beauty pageant arrived in China last month, business has been booming as residents want to get a taste of glamour, Gao said Friday.

"Everyone sees how beautiful they are and they want to be like them," he said as he rang up sales at his cash register.

The scene is repeated in many salons in the tropical resort of Sanya, where the 106 women are vying for the crown at the pageant's finals on Saturday.

The Miss World contest — China's first international beauty pageant — marks a new high point in the country's headlong pursuit of glamour.

China is awash in fashion magazines, modeling contests and cosmetic surgery and as incomes rise, more and more women — and quite a few men — are paying rapt attention to fast-changing styles in clothes, haircuts and grooming.

"We are now paying unprecedented attention to beauty," said Zhou Xiong, spokesman for the Miss World pageant's Chinese promoters in Sanya. "It was unthinkable to hold such an event in China 10 years ago, but now it's a natural thing."

The Miss World finalists have added to the buzz, touring the host country and posing for countless photos that are splashed across Chinese television and newspapers.

The pursuit of beauty already yielded big money in China.

In 2001, Chinese bought $5 billion worth of cosmetics products, according to the Web site of the China Hair and Beauty Association.

Cosmetic surgery also has taken off, spawning an industry that takes in $2.4 billion a year, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Patients often aim for changes based on Western ideals of wide eyes, full lips and breasts, and long legs.

One dramatic case is Lucy Hao, a 24-year-old freelance writer who has undergone multiple surgeries over the past five months in Beijing. The private hospital that reshaped the bridge of her nose, enlarged her breasts and made dozens of other changes will also foot the $36,000 bill in exchange for the publicity she brought them.

Cristina Pieraccini, an American who studies how media affect women and children, said the Miss World contest could bring a new "global vision" of beauty to China.

"I think it will certainly infuse the traditional Western 'ideal' of beauty into Chinese culture," said Pieraccini, a professor at the State University of New York in Oswego, N.Y. "However, I think it works both ways, and the traditional ideal of Eastern beauty will be equally fused into Western society."

Miss World judges agree.

"Height and hair color are completely unimportant," said author Candace Bushnell, on whose book the popular TV series "Sex and the City (news - Y! TV)" is based. Others on the panel that will pick the winner Saturday include film star Jackie Chan and Julia Morley, president of the British-based Miss World organization.

"It is a cliche, but beauty really does come from within," Bushnell said. "It's that spark inside of a person and that passion. All of these girls have that kind of spark and passion."

But Wang Simei, an official of the All-China Women's Federation, the body sanctioned by China's government to promote the interests of women, was skeptical.

"Although some requirements include cultural knowledge and language ability, their body and appearances are still the precondition for them to enter the competition. That is not a fair way to judge," said Wang, deputy director of the federation's Women's Research Institute.

"It's also not beneficial to the development of women themselves," she said. "It arouses some women's ambition to be a star overnight and to place their future on their bodies and appearances."

Back at Gao's salon, customer Chen Yan said the pursuit of beauty was endless for some women. But the 25-year-old hotel employee said she has her own limits.

"It depends on how you define beauty. While I envy how pretty the Miss World contestants are, I've never thought about changing my appearance," she said. "I think the Chinese look is the most beautiful."

(China Daily December 6, 2003)